Dental massage device



' Na i139 @2ST REMENSNYDER DENTAL MASSAGE DEVI CE Filed Sept. 14, 1925 nu F Patented Nov. .13, 1928.

PAT-ENT OFFICE.

03am REMENSNYDER, or SAGINAW, MIGHIGAN.

DENTAL MASSAGE DEVICE.

Application tiled September 14, 1925. Serial No. 56,333.

This invention is a dental device adapted to be used by the patient for exercising and massaging the ms, especially the gins in cases W ere stimulation is indicated,

5 as in the treatment of certain diseases of the gums, such as pyorrhea.

The treatment of cludes regular daily stimulation by massaging the gums during or following any of the usual dental treatments, surgical, prophylactic, correction of occlusion, or constitutional.

Treatment of gum diseases has long ago demonstrated that stimulation by massaging could be employed most e'ectively if means could be devised whereby it would. be possible to maintain simultaneous contact of the massaging instrument with the entire margins of the gums, that is to say, the 1nvesting tissues, including all sides of the neck of each tooth. It may, therefore, be stated as a fundamental consideration that a satisfactory device for the purpose herein described should be capable of vmaking contact simultaeously over the gum margins, in their entirety, that is, including the interdental spaces. i

So far as I am aware, the present invention is the first to embody this fundamental consideration in a practical and successful device for accomplishing the desired results.

Complete contact and manipulation for massaging the entire margins of the gums,4

and also for cleaning the teeth, is, in my device, attained irespective of the alignment or irregularities of the teeth, or of the absence of certain teeth. The dentist, moreover, can designate the places of contact, or the points of application of the massaging and cleaning operations to suit the requirements of each individual case; that is, he can select those places where contact is needed, and my appliance will produce simultaneous action in all such places when the patient uses the device.

The appliance is vusable where thereY is bridgework, and wherever there is gum tissue to be treated the massage device closely surrounds and graspsthe tooth and operates upon the gum margins with the amount of pressure desired by the atient.

Another advantage o myimprovement is that the masticating action attendant upon the use of the appliance also induces consider- `equivalents thereof.

pyorrhea usually in-` A N part sectional side view of the.,

able lflow of thel mouth secretions, which many cases is a desirable' effect. v

` With theforegoing and certain other ob-H -l jects in v iew, which will appear later in the specifications, my invention comprises the devices described and Aclaimed and the Fig. 1 is a device in use.

Fig. 2 is a plan cavities. y

Fig. 3 is a vertical section, showing teeth in place.

view. showing the Fig. 4 is a similar vertical section of a up to and have their margins or borders 3a,

4a, engaging with the inner and outer or lingua-l and labial gingival margins 5.

The interior opposing faces of the two walls 3, 4 are preferably fashioned to fit and closely engage the outer and inner face areas 6, 7 of each of the teeth to be treated, as well as the side wall areas 8 being the mesial and distal surfaces of the interdental spaces.

Preferably, the pad member l and the wall members 3, 4, are all molded as an integral structure from softy rubber, so the pad fits the teeth as perfectly as if the teeth themselves had been formed by being molded in the pad impressions. y

The essential feature, however, is that there shall be a compressible pad which unindented, and a pair of inner and outermassaging margins or borders suitably mounted on the sides of the pad, so that when the pad is indented these margins will be forced inward and will also have a slight up-and-'down rubbingv action. As stated above, and as shown in thedrawings, the rims or margins 3, 4a that perform the work of massaging are joined to the compressible pad by being molded integral therewith, and this description will be directed to a device so constructed, but it is to be underder the pressure of the tooth yields, by being stood thatgmy invention is not limited to this specific integral molding of the pad and the side walls, but includes in its scope the mechanical equivalents thereof, as set forth two essential mechanical qualities possessed.

by the device. In the first place the base 1, is, as before stated, elastic and compresslble and in mastication the tooth crown 2 oomresses it. Since the flexible pad in its prelyerred form closely and completely sur- 'rounds and isfashioned in the shape of the various teeth, there is a rubbing action on the tooth surfaces, produced by the up-anddown movement permitted by the-compressibility of the base, and this action takes place over the entire area of each tooth that is contacted by the flexible walls 3, 4.

The other essential result attained by reason of the compressibility of the base of the pad during mastication is a pumping and massaging action caused by the said slight up-and-down movement, as 'indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3, and the resultant alternate gripping and relaxing movements of the margins or free rims 3, 4 ofthe pad upon the margins of the gums, as indicated by the arrows.

When the gums are diseased detachment of the gum tissue usually occurs and pockets are often formed. In such cases the slight pumping action above alluded to ma cause a small amount of blood to exude. his usually marks the beginning of the healing process accompanied by the formation of new tissue, and is a proper and desirable method of promoting a reattachment. In cases of this vkind the pockets and places of attachment are apt to become filled with pus and dbris, but the um ing action produced by my device dislo ges and removes it in an effective manner that can not be equaled by means of a tooth brush.

A tooth brush or similar hand manipulated device,` especially if operated by the dentist, does not give the patient any oppor` tunity to regulate the intensity or amount of pressure accompanying the massaging action.' With my device the patient himself can apply whatever pressure is desired, bc-

cause the amount of pressure .is controlled by the patients masticating muscles.

One biting action per second is about the normal rate of chewino' and if this action be kept up for a half minute, will produce as much-massaging of the gums, and do it in each day over an extended period ofwtime, -1

because it is not practicable for the patient to correctly massage .al1 of his gum areas 'ly means of a hand manipulated device.

he bristles of a brush are not adapted for getting into the narrow spaces between the teeth around the entire area of the gum and there are certain of the gum areas that are probabl never reached b a tooth brush.

My evice may be mo ded in the usual manner from soft rubber -so as to fit one or more of the patients teeth and their gum tissue, or it may be made inthe form of a complete mold to take all of the teeth of. theupper jaw and another mold may be made for the teeth of the lower jaw, or if desired, both the upper and lower jaw molds mzy bemolded integral, as shown in Fig. 4.

aving thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: f

1. A gum-massaging device comprisin a compressible elastic base pad member an a wall member secured to said. ad member, the rim of said wall member a. a ted to extend up to and contact with thev ree margin of the gum tissue and to exert variable pressure against said free margin when a tooth indents and com resses a part of said base pad member by iting upon said base pad member.

2. A gum-massaging device comprising a compressible elastic base ad member and an inner and an outer yiel able wall member secured to said base pad member the'free edges of said wall members adapted to closel conform to and contact with the free margins of the gum tissues to be treated and to exert variable pressure thereon when said tooth is caused to indent and compress a art of said pad member between said walls y biting upon said base pad member.

3. A gum-massaging device comprising a compressible elastic base pad member and an inner and an outer yieldable wall member integral with said base pad -member, the free edges of said wall members adapted 'to extend the full exposed length of the teeth and to closely engage and contact with the free margins of the gums throughout their entire extent, including those margins of the gums in the interdental spaces, and to exert variable pressure and suction thereon when parts of said base pad member are indented y the teeth of the user by biting upon said base pad member.

4. A gum-massaging device comprising a with said base pad member and adapted caused to indent and compress said base pad to closely envelop and conform to the shape' member by biting upon said base pad memof a tooth, the free edges of said wall member. 10 bers adapted to extend up to and make con- In testimony whereof, I affix my signa- 5 tact with the free margins of the gums, and ture. l

to exert variable pressure and pumping or/ suction effect thereon when said tooth is ORRIN REMENSNYDER. 

